


A Deal with the Devil

by Dark_Falcon



Category: One Piece
Genre: Afterlife, Gen, Purgatory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 16:35:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16896141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_Falcon/pseuds/Dark_Falcon
Summary: The devil wants to harm a soul, who escaped him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is old as balls and on the indeterminate hiatus. I'm posting it here as a backup in case Tumblr fall apart. It's probably worth to mention that the three chapters I have already end with some nasty cliffhanger.

Ace woke up to the sounds of smooth jazz.

To be honest he did not expect to wake up  at all. Yet here he was laying naked, covered with plain white, silky blanket on quite comfortable couch. He had no idea how he got there, how long he had been unconscious or why was he naked. 

The couch was standing in the room painted white, without any windows. The light seem to just ooze out of the walls. 

He wasn't alone. There was a man sitting on an elegant, white chair next to matching table. The rosary metalwork the furniture was made of was a masterpiece of craftsmanship. 

Ace got strange sense of absurdity of the whole situation. 

The man had straight blond hair, greased to the back of his head. Perhaps he could have been described as handsome, if his features weren't so bland. He could have been about thirty, it was hard to say. He was wearing comfortably looking, semi formal,  grey suit  and a blue shirt. He was reading from little black book with some golden letters on the cover. Ace have never seen such writing. The book was rather remarkable, as it’s pages were also black. If Ace was to guess sentences inside were printed or maybe calligraphed in gold as well.

The man looked at Ace, when he started to move. 

"I see you finally come through," he stated, sending Ace most insincere smile the later had ever seen.

"Forgive me to ask, but where am I, the last I remember..." Ace began politely.

"You died. Correct. The circumstances were very annoying for me so I took liberty to bring you here. I want to discuss something with you."

This was rather confusing answer. Ace decided he did not like or trust this man. However he made no hostile moves so far so Ace decide to act in a civilized way as well.

"So this is some kind of afterlife, or... Sorry, but have we met?"

"Not in person. No. And yes you may say this is afterlife."

"Well then, who are you, sir?"

"My dear boy, I'm the Devil of course." man’s, or rather  Devil’s smile was as radiant as it was artificial. "And I have a proposition that may be of interest to you."


	2. Chapter 2

Bell-Mere liked to travel the Wastelands. As much as she loved horticulture, sitting in the Garden for the whole eternity just seemed too boring. Especially since everything would grow perfectly without any help from residing humans.

So she just take some days to wander around. The landscape of this place was ever changing. Some locations just change and shift from time to time. And there probably were some wormholes or passages in space, that allow to move from one far away place to another skipping days of a journey. It was hard to navigate but it was fun. And she would always manage to find her way back to Garden too. 

Wastelands were mostly deserts and partly steppes.  But there were some oases, where vegetation was abundant, and in some gorges forests flourish. Weather could be very unpredictable, so different from the mild warm air of the Garden. Scorching hots or frosts could attack any time, although rain or even snow was a rare occurrence. Some parts of the Wastelands must have been covered with the ice for eternity. Some were covered with garbage and ruins. Supposedly those were remains dead possessions and houses. It was not that unusual to find a wreckage of a ship in the middle of nowhere. There were tales, that somewhere over the horizon lies the sea. But Bell-Mere never succeeded to find it. 

Some of her trips were uneventful. Others were filled with kicking Demons’ asses. God, she hated those things. Luckily she had upper hand - Hell had no claims over her. There were days, where she managed to caught some wild Beasts, usually of a smaller variety. Those were quite tasty. A nice change to the fruits of the Garden. 

Sometimes she was meeting lost souls. Some were friendly and need help with getting to the safety of the Garden. But not everyone. There were souls of criminals. Some were just very unpleasant. Others were plainly hostile. 

And now there was a kid. 

The child have never even notice her, stumbling, as if their legs could barely carry them. Which, judging from the state they was in, was probably the case. Neither did they notice incoming Beast.  

They made no notice of hearing her shout either, when she tried to warn them about attacking Beast. 

It was not that Beast could kill a soul, but it could hurt the child more than they already were. Bell-Mere couldn't allow that. Hastily she aimed her rifle. Happy at the possession she scavenged from a wreckage of a ship and had one of fellow denizens of the Garden repair it for her. 

She fired and hadn't miss. The Beast stopped in it’s tracks, before it turned and run away, likely to fell prey of another of it’s kind.

Bell-Mere ran to the kid, who acted, as if they were oblivious to reality around them.  She did not want to scare them so she chose to approach from the front. The kid made no sign of spotting her. 

The closer she got the worse the child look. They may have been six to eight and very scrawny. They were wrapped in a piece of dirty cloth. Their hair was dark, but it was too filthy to tell if it was black or brown. Their skin was much darker than hers, also covered in grime, but even then she could see many terrible bruises. Her heart torn open for seeing a kid in such state.  

She tried to talk and gesture towards the child, to gained their attention, but they did not respond in any way. It made her think that maybe the child can’t see nor hear her at all.

So she reached out to touch them.


	3. Chapter 3

Ace was confused. If he was dead and the man in front of him was the Devil, wouldn't that mean he was already in Devils power? Why would he want to offer Ace anything?

"I'm sorry, but that sounds rather dubious," Ace remarked.

"Oh, really?" the Devil asked. "I figured you may say that. Care to hear the explanation?"

"Can I actually refuse?" Ace questioned.

"Yes, in the matter of fact you can. Unfortunately I can’t force you to do anything. For now I can’t touch you. But you have time, right? You are dead, you have nowhere to be. You can just as well to hear me out. I guarantee, by the time I finish you would be very, very _interested_."

"Well, since you put it that way I’ll hear what you have to say. It can’t hurt, can it? Or are you going to lie to me?"

"Oh, I certainly would, if I only could. Unfortunately there are rules about those things. And those rules bind me. For mortals it’s a sort of magic really." Devil’s tone was as sweet as it was insincere. Ace did not know if the Devil was trying to trick him into believing him or not. He was wary. But perhaps it would be better to hear out what Devil has to say and later decide whether to believe it or not.

"Okay, just state your business with me. Than I can go, right?"

"But of course." The Devil beamed. "Wouldn't you mind if I tell you a bit of a story?" 

"So it would take a while? Not at all. Though I'm getting hungry. How is it even possible?"

"You have a habit of eating. I can arrange the food for you if you like?"

Ace narrowed his eyes. "I'm not a guy who ever says no to the free food, but..."

"You suspect that the food will either not come free or that I would spike it with something. Rest assured, I would if it was possible, but for now I simply fulfill rules of hospitality."

"No offence, but I don’t trust you. Get to your story." Ace made himself comfortable on the couch.

"Oh, certainly..." The Devil paused. "You know, I really, really hate you. You offended me like not many people ever have." At that Ace squirmed uncomfortably. The Devil laughed. "No reason to stress. Not yet." 

"People’s existence in general offends me. I despise all of you. I want all of you destroyed. I want you to suffer. But souls can’t be truly annihilated, no matter how much power I posses. And believe me I don’t have as much power as people give me the credit for. At least not in the world of the living. Your kind just want to absolve yourself from your wrongdoings."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"Ah, nothing, don’t mind all that. But I used to have high hopes for you. I wanted you to be my tool, when you were still alive."

Ace froze at that statement. He knew his life wasn't the best, but for the Devil to expect him to turn out into... what exactly? It was an uncomfortable though. And than suddenly cold fury hit him. The Devil wanted to use him. Like a tool. Like an object.

The Devil paid no mind to his cold glares (proving himself an entity of steel nerves).

"The people were so cruel to you. So full of hatred. I was really hoping they will mange to kill your soul, while your body would remain alive with dead soul inside. Such vessel could be easily filled with hatred. And that would make you an excellent tool for making other humans suffer and for spreading hatred. But unfortunately they hadn't mange to kill you of completely. A spark had always remained.  Although I wager, that at the time you must have felt as if your soul died."

It did.

"Any way, such small spark of life was bound to die if not for the fact there was always another boy with you. I was hoping the two of you would get separated at some point. I was hoping his parents would take him back an mold him into something better suiting my tastes and that your spark would finally go out. But before that could happen anther child entered you life. That one made me lose all hope for making you my tool. He his also to be blamed for me loosing any claims over you. You must realize, I really hate him."

Ace kind of wanted to punch the Devil but at the same time he felt very warm for thinking about how much good influence his brothers had in his life.

"From that time you pushed yourself to grow. You can’t imagine how I hate souls, who cultivate themselves. The ones, who make themselves better than they were before. You are such a soul. You worked to be more considerate. You've grown  kinder and more compassionate. Your devotion to others, courage, desire for freedom, all bloomed. And you build so much restrain and inner discipline. Truly a great soul."

"I've observed countless souls since the down of humanity. But rarely I see someone, who being given so little, grows so much. I desire to destroy virtuous souls, such as yourself the most. So I though to myself, that maybe I’ll be able to snatch you one day. After all you really had your dark moments. You are a sinner, a criminal. You carry chaos within you. You are vulnerable, because you don’t know how beautiful your soul really is. You can’t really see your worth. That puts you in the pits of despair. I supposed those people crippled something important in your soul for good."

"So I was waiting. Your soul would not be easy to obtain, as I doubt you would ever go straight to me after death. But I could send my Hounds and Demons after you. And torture you to destroy everything you are."

"Unfortunately for the sake of that child you show upon your death the love so strong that prevents me to ever reach for you on my own," the Devil concluded.

Ace was piercing him with cold stare.

"Than how come I'm here," He asked suspiciously. 

"Oh, that is just a different rules apply when I want to talk to someone and when I want to claim their soul."

"But you still want something from me?  Even if you can’t have my soul?" Ace inquired.

"Yes. It may be of interest to you, that I have an access to a soul that is very tightly tied with yours," the Devil stated with a fake smile.


End file.
